Any way to pay less receiving money from abroad?

eDicky

sgt_bilko wrote: »

It costs me nothing to open or keep a dollar account.

As far as I can see, there is no information about or reference to US dollar (or euro) accounts on the First Direct website, so it will be interesting to hear how yours turns out, Sarge.

It would be worth looking at Revolut for making the conversion. Its USD balance could be loaded from your FD dollar account, exchanged to pounds at the perfect interbank rate into the GBP balance, then withdrawn to your sterling account. Revolut charges no fees at all, so the only cost would be the charge by FD for the dollar payment, if any (there would be no foreign transfer or conversion element). Loading Revolut instantly with a USD debit card normally involves no charges from the card issuer, but it's unlikely that FD give you one with your dollar account. (If they do and there's really no fees I'll be opening one ASAP!)

sgt_bilko_2

Thanks I'll take a look at Revolut. This is the first time I have heard of them but I would only use a broker is they are authorised by the FCA so your cash is safe. There are lots of brokers but only a handful are authorised.

My understanding with the FD currency accounts is that they are very bare bones and you can't do anything online or use a card etc. You can either leave money there in the foreign currency or call FD and have them transfer it to another destination, such as a broker, but I gather it's the same with Barclays and others. All things being equal I chose FD because they have the best feedback for customer satisfaction.

grumbler

sgt_bilko wrote: »

...I would only use a broker is they are authorised by the FCA so your cash is safe.

Search MSE for 'crown exchange' then

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/advanced-search.php?q=crown%20exchange&searchtype=guides

.... I chose FD because they have the best feedback for customer satisfaction. This FSA authorisation is a red herring IMO, although the majority of UK brokers are authorised anyway.

I think this satisfaction has long gone because of the AML paranoia spreading from HSBC.

sgt_bilko_2

I always tend to think that if there was a serious market crash those government guarantees wouldn't be worth the paper they are written on but at least they FCA authorised operators are obliged to keep customer money separate from their own accounts.

Has FD gone down hill very recently? I ran a Google search for customer satisfaction and it was the highest ranked bank every time, including on this site.

grumbler

I think the last MSE's poll was a year ago. Although I don't put much trust into it, let's see this year's results...

BTW, 'ring-fenced money' is a red herring too IMO, as Crown clearly demonstrated.
And, unlike for banks with FSCS, there are no any 'government guarantees' for FCA authorised brokers.